EDITORIAL

Opening earlier this year to much fanfare and reminiscing about “the

day that will live in infamy,” the movie Pearl Harbor showed the fear,

the surprise and the bravery that characterized Dec. 7, 1941. It reminded

our country of the heights we rose to in the days, months and years

following the attack. Those men and women, since dubbed The Greatest

Generation, charged through the Pacific and onto the beaches of Normandy

and then helped lead this country to world prominence.

And we’ve stayed there for some 50 years.

But Sept. 11, 2001 made the hype over that movie seem paltry in

comparison.

On that day, that will also now live in infamy, two planes crashed

into New York City’s World Trade Center, another left a gash in the

Pentagon. A fourth plane plunged into an empty field, a tragedy that by

all accounts avoided an even greater one had that plane hit its intended

target.

With the unthinkable crumbling of the Twin Towers, America had its new

Pearl Harbor Day. We have our new war. We have our new fears. We have our

new challenges. We will have even more.

And we most certainly will have our new bravery.

Tomorrow, the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor day, is the best

reminder of that vital truth. The stories from that morning, and the

stories that have followed, prove that America is as strong as its

millions of individual parts.

Today’s Independent offers a look at just two of those individuals.

There are many more out there in our neighborhoods, our schools and our

workplaces. We need only look to find reminders of what we have faced and

overcome.

As we rise up to our new challenges, it is right that we reflect on

these strengths and draw renewed resolve from them. To do any less would

be infamous.